Magic of the Austral Road, 12 days at the end of the world.

From North to South, the Austral Road stretches for 1240 km from the capital of the Lake District, Puerto Montt, to Villa O’Higgins, a dead-end village between lakes and glaciers, the very end of the world! There, it comes up against the great Southern Ice Field, 13,000 km² of glaciers, straddling Chile and Argentina, a remnant of an ancient ice cap that covered all of Patagonia about 10,000 years ago; today, it is the third largest reserve of drinking water in the world after Antarctica and Greenland. This road was built between 1980 and 1988, at great expense and at the cost of many risks, by the military, with the aim of connecting this isolated region to the rest of Chile. Still little traveled, it is a magnificent route through an imposing natural landscape. And so much water! Lakes, rivers, streams, waterfalls, peat bogs, fjords, and channels… On this tour in Chile, we will only travel the southern part of the Carretera Austral, from Coyhaique, the most isolated and little-known part, in a still very well-preserved natural environment. Best season: from late October to April. The above price is indicative, based on a collective/shared service, double room, Spanish-speaking driver-guide.